


The Killing Joke

by SailorLestrade



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Kidnapping, Laughing Gas, Stockholm Syndrome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 03:15:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2676956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorLestrade/pseuds/SailorLestrade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a mysterious package arrives at the tower for you, your world starts to spiral out of control. Can Loki and the Avengers save you, or are you destined for a new life?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Killing Joke

“Mail call.” Steve announced as he brought in boxes upon boxes of fan mail for the Avengers. You weren’t in there for that though. You were in the lab, working. There was never any mail for you anyway, so you didn’t bother going to the main room when Steve made the announcement. But all the others, even Loki, gathered around the table as Steve handed out the mail.

“Hey there’s something here for (y/n).” Natasha said, holding up a small package. “She must have went on another eBay buying spree again.” She laughed.

“I’ll drop it off for her.” Bruce said. “I’m on my way to my lab. I go by hers.” He said, taking the large stack of letter for him and her box. He knocked on your lab door then slowly walked in. He saw you sitting on a stool in your lab coat and goggles, writing something down. “Hey (y/n).” You looked up at him and smiled.

“Oh hey Bruce!” You said. He smiled back and presented you with the box. “What’s this?”

“It came in the mail.” He said. “We thought you’d know what it was. You probably ordered it.” You set it on your desk.

“Maybe it’s a late order.” You said. “Thanks for dropping it off for me.” He smiled and nodded.

“If you need anything, I’m just through the glass door.” He laughed before going through the divider to the lab him and Tony usually shared. You sighed and laid your goggles on the desk. You glanced over to see Bruce already at work and Tony watching him. You smiled sadly and looked at your empty lab. They all loved you, but none of them ever wanted to come visit you in here. Maybe it was because you didn’t have the possibility to turn into a green giant at any given moment. Maybe it was because you weren’t like the rest of them. You were just…you.

“Well, let’s see what we got here.” You said. You carefully cut the tape with a pair of scissors and opened the box. That’s when you were hit with a ball of green gas. You coughed and used your hand to fan away the remaining gas. “What was that?” You asked. You figured that it was probably Loki playing a trick on you, seeing as it was green. You looked back in the box and saw a playing card laying on the bottom.

It was warn and yellowed, but it had the silhouette of what looked like a devil bent over in laughter. The words Joker were seen on the side. You sighed. An old playing card. You were positive then it was just Loki being an annoying little asshole. You loved him to death, but every day was April Fools to him.

“Back to work I guess.” You said. You turned on your iHome to drown out the silence in the room. The Clash started playing loudly and you smiled. You put your goggles back on and went to your lab table, where you had beakers lined up with different substances. But you couldn’t focus on them. You just kept giggling for some reason.

“This song isn’t even funny.” You giggled. You couldn’t stop smiling though and your chest was starting to hurt a bit. Soon, your giggles turned into a full blown laugh. You couldn’t stop it. You just kept laughing. As you doubled over, laughing heartily, you knocked over a beaker or two. You fell to the floor then, laughing hysterically. “Help!” You tried to scream, but over your music and your laughing, nothing was coming out. You managed to crawl over to the emergency alert button and press it, sending out a loud alarm throughout the tower, before you collapsed, chest heaving with each laugh.

****

“What the…” Tony began before Bruce looked through the glass divider at your lab and saw you on the ground, looking like you were in the middle of a seizer. 

“Tony grab my med kit!” Bruce screamed at him before running into the lab. Tony was confused until he saw what Bruce saw. He quickly grabbed the first aid and followed Bruce in.

“(Y/n)!” Bruce said, kneeling by you. “Can you hear me?” You just kept laughing, your eyes bloodshot and your face full of fear, even though you had a large smile on your face. Bruce reached into his first aid kit and found a tranquilizer. He had to get you to calm down before something bad happened. So he filled the syringe with the liquid and gave you a shot. Your body relaxed and your eyes closed just as the others ran in.

“What the hell was that for?” Clint asked. Tony was too busy examining your desk and the package that set on it while Bruce was checking your pulse.

“What happened?” Loki asked, noticing you on the ground. Tony put the playing card in a plastic bag and looked at Bruce.

“I don’t know.” Bruce said. “If it was a seizure, it was one of the weirdest ones I’ve ever seen.” Loki was quickly at your side. He raised a hand over your forehead, as if he was trying to read your thoughts. But it was all garbled with “hahaha” thrown in everywhere. He looked at Bruce.

“There’s nothing in her mind but laughter.” Loki said. “Have you ever seen anything like this?”

“I had a cousin who used to live in Gotham City.” Natasha said. “She told me about this mad man who went around unleashing a toxin into the air that made people laugh themselves to death. He also blew up cars and other things. There’s a reason she doesn’t live there anymore.” Loki picked you up then.

“She needs to be monitored.” Loki said. “And we need to find who did this.”

“I’ve got a Joker card.” Tony said. “I’ll go examine it. Take her to sick bay.” Loki was already heading out the door, Bruce behind him. Thor walked over to where you had fallen.

“I sense something dark.” He said. “But I’m not as clairvoyant as my brother, so I don’t know what it is.”

“Why would someone want to hurt (y/n)?” Clint asked. “It just doesn’t make any sense. She’s so nice.”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.” Steve said, heading for his costume. He was going to do some investigating.

****

Loki set as your side while Bruce took your vitals and watched your monitors. He kept trying to read your thoughts, but it was all laughter. There was nothing else. He looked up at Bruce, who shared his worry.

“Tony will find something.” Bruce said. “If there’s any trace of what did this to her on the card, we can possibly make an antidote.”

“But what’s to stop them from attacking again?” Loki asked. “And why with all these high profile people living in one building did they attack the only one of us who isn’t a part of this dumb team?” Bruce shrugged.

“I wish I knew.” He said. “Come on Loki. Let her rest. We have her set up to manage everything. And there’s a camera. She’ll be fine.” Loki sighed and stood up. He pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“I’ll find who did this to you and they will suffer.” Loki said before turning and leaving with Bruce.

Loki was well known for vengeance. And this time, it would be personal.

****

“We couldn’t find anything.” Steve said as him, Clint, and Natasha came back. They had Sam out looking for things, as well as several good SHIELD agents, but they were coming up with nothing.

“There’s no finger prints on the card outside of mine and (y/n)’s.” Tony explained. “JARVIS is doing a scan right now, but nothing is showing up.” Loki growled in frustration.

“There has to be something!” He said. Thor came in then. He had been watching your room for a few minutes, trying to see if he could sense anything that might help. But sadly, nothing. It was like you had been attacked by a ghost.

“It’s getting late.” Clint said. “We should all turn in. Maybe some sleep will help.” As much as they hated to admit it, Clint had a point.

“JARVIS, alert us if anything changes involving (y/n).” Tony told the computer.

“Yes sir.” JARVIS replied. Loki sighed before he reluctantly left the room. With your life in danger, he didn’t really want to sleep. But he knew that staying awake wouldn’t do much good either, considering he didn’t really know how to run half the equipment in this place. The others soon followed.

****

“My, my, my.” Someone said, talking into your room. You were hooked up to oxygen and sleeping peacefully, though your dreams were just laughter. “Looks like they’re trying to undo my handy work. That just won’t do.”

He pulled all the wires off of you and picked you up. Your eyes were still closed and you didn’t even register that you were being moved. But JARVIS noticed. And as soon as the man who had you started to leave the tower, the alarm went off, waking all the Avengers up.

“What’s going on?” Clint asked.

“Someone has broken into the tower and is taking (y/n).” JARVIS said. Clint grabbed his bow, Steve grabbed his shield, and Tony got ready to launch a suit. Thor and Loki raced to the lobby, hoping to stop him. But this man was fast. And he had a car waiting outside for him. All that they found of him was a Joker card lying on the floor.

“Damn it!” Bruce said. “How the hell did he get around security?!”

“Uh, guys.” Natasha pointed to a couple SHIELD agents who had been stationed at the front doors. They were laying on the ground, smiles frozen on their faces. They were both dead.

“Oh no.” Loki said. “We have to find (y/n). Now!”

“We will.” Steve said. “Come on, they couldn’t have gone far.”

****

It was two days before you gained conciseness completely. The first thing you noticed was the retched smell of the room and the dirty cot. The second thing was that you were in a skin tight black and red cat suit with a diamond pattern sewn onto it. You set up and saw a broken mirror leaning against a dirty wall of the room you were in. You carefully stood up and walked over to it and gasped at what you saw.

Your hair had been dyed. Half bright, vibrant red. Half black as the sky at midnight. Your face had thick, white makeup on it, your lips were painted black, and you had thick black circles around your eyes.

“What happened to me?” You asked yourself, looking at your hands. The door opened behind you.

“Don’t you just look…beautiful.” Someone said. You turned and almost screamed. A man stood there with clown makeup on his face and a purple and green suit. His makeup was smeared and you weren’t exactly a fan of clowns anyway. “Just a few minor improvements on your old look.” He walked closer to you.

“Why me?” You asked.

“You’re the only one who deserves more than society has given you.” He said. He reached up and caressed your face, smearing your makeup. “With me, you’ll get it all and more.”

“I just want to go home.” You whimpered. He just looked at you before the flower on his suit unleashed more of the green gas into your face.

“I’ll just leave you here to think.” He said, turning around and shutting the door to your room as you erupted into laughter.

****

The Avengers searched everywhere for you, but you were no longer in New York. You didn’t know where you were and slowly, you started to enjoy the time you spent with your kidnapper, someone you lovingly called “Mister J”. You kept your hair the way he liked and wore the makeup to match his.

“What is your name?” He asked you. It was a common occurrence. For the first month you had been with him, you told him your birth name without a hitch, only to get sprayed with more laughing gas. Now, here it was, almost three months after you had been taken, and he was asking you again.

“My name is Harley Quinn.” You said, making his smile grow bigger.

“And what is your purpose in life?”

“To serve Mister J and make him happy!” You giggled. He smiled and hugged him.

“Oh Puddin’.” He said, kissing you. “Let’s go show you off to the world.”

****

The TV was on the news, but no one was really watching it. It had been almost four months since you had been taken and they were taking it hard. Loki took it the hardest and had to be locked up a couple times to stop him from breaking Manhattan again. It was almost midnight and they should’ve been going to bed, but no one could. Bruce set in his lab with Tony, trying to find something that could give a clue to where you were. Thor and Loki had been talking with Heimdall to find you, but so far, he had come up empty as well.

“Sir.” JARVIS said suddenly. “There’s reports of a man and woman robbing the largest jewelry store in New York. Police can’t get in due to barricades.” 

“Guess we have nothing better to do.” Tony said. “Avengers…ah screw it. Just got.” They nodded and suited up and headed to the large jewelry store that reminded Steve of how Fort Knox would be. It was dark inside when they entered. They couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.

“Split up and search.” Steve said. Everyone nodded and went in separate directions. Thor heard giggling as he walked and what sounded like someone walking by him. He turned to see who was there, but he didn’t see anything.

“You’ve got a nice hammer.” He turned to see you standing there, but he didn’t realize who it was. “Mine’s bigger.” You held up a large mallet.

“Who are you?” Thor asked. You jump up and flipped over him before landing behind him and using the hammer of your mallet to knock him off his feet.

“Harley Quinn.” You said, bowing. “Nice ta meet ya toots.”

“Hey lady!” Natasha called out then. You turned and she immediately hit you in the gut. You fell down, dropping your mallet. Tony, Bruce, and Steve had Mister J cornered. Natasha, Clint, Thor, and Loki had you.

“Let me go!” You said. Clint had a hold of your arm. “Mister J needs me!”

“You’re not going anywhere.” Thor said. You tried to pull free and did, but ended up on your butt. You were sweating, making your makeup run. Natasha grabbed a hold of you.

“Let’s see who you really are.” She said, wiping it away. She gasped and let go of you.

“What is it?” Clint asked.

“(Y/n).” She whispered. Clint, Thor, and Loki looked at you.

“Mister J!” You cried out. But there was no answer. He had fled and left you behind. Tony, Steve, and Bruce walked over to the others. Your black circles were running down the white makeup. Tears were falling quickly. “Mister J!” You called out again.

“Darling, he won’t hurt you again.” Loki said, walking towards you. You moved away from him.

“Where’s Mister J?” You whimpered. “I need him!” Loki knelt in front of you and put his hands on both sides of your head.

“Just breathe.” He soothed. Suddenly, you cried out as he worked to undo the Stockholm Syndrome Mister J had done to you. Large tears fell down your cheeks. “Shh darling. It’s okay.” He held you close. “I’m so sorry I didn’t protect you.”

“L-Loki?” You asked, your voice vanishing from crying. He nodded.

“It’s me darling.” He whispered. “It’s me. You’re going to be okay. I’ve got you now.” The other Avengers watched as you clung to Loki for dear life, crying into his shoulder. “I’ll protect you. I promise.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, what did you think? Was it decent?


End file.
